Titas Gas pushed into crisis as Summit, Edra, others owe Tk 6,694cr

Local energy giant Summit Group, Malaysian Edra Energy, and other public and private power plants have turned Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company into a losing concern by failing to pay Tk 6,694 crore in gas bills over the past year, said officials. 

Edra Energy, a Malaysian-based joint venture, owes Tk 1,996 crore for gas consumed by its two power plants — the 450MW combined cycle power plant in Meghnaghat and the 360MW plant in Haripur, Narayanganj. Titas Gas has not received Tk 1,500 crore from Edra for the Meghnaghat plant from April 2023 to September 2024. Additionally, Tk 495.81 crore remains unpaid for gas supplied to the Haripur plant.

Summit Group’s Meghnaghat Power Company Ltd (335MW) and Meghnaghat-2 Power Company Ltd (583MW) have also defaulted on payments of Tk 583.44 crore and Tk 256.38 crore, respectively.

Public and independent power producers (IPPs) currently owe Tk 6,694 crore to Titas, out of a total of Tk 8,166 crore in unpaid gas bills. Of this, Tk 34.26 crore is owed by Doreen Power plants, owned by former AL MP Tahzeeb Alam Siddique. Additionally, two rental power plants, Regent Power and Energy Ltd (108MW) and Max Power, have left Tk 77 crore unpaid.

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company’s Managing Director, Shahnewaz Parves, confirmed that they are unable to meet payments for LNG purchase charges, wellhead margins, and international oil company charges due to the unpaid bills.

He also cited regulatory funds such as the Gas Development Fund and the Energy Security Fund as areas of non-payment.

The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) chairman, Engineer Md Rezaul Karim, responded, acknowledging that BPDB itself owes Tk 40,000 crore in electricity bills to various plants, which has led to non-payment of energy bills amounting to Tk 16,000 crore.

“We have yet to pay Tk 40,000 crore electricity bills to different public and private plants and it pushes up non-payment of energy bills to Tk 16,000 crore,” he told the Just Energy News.

However, the BPDB has increased its payment of energy bills to Tk 1,000 crore monthly, compared to Tk 400-500 crore before the interim government regime.